LBS ****** or uninformed salesman?

Went to the LBS and I feel I was lied to or possibly the salesman hasn,t worked with Clydes before. He was showing me a Trek 3700 and told me it would be more bike than I would need! The suspension forl would handle my weight @ #339 And the single wall rims should give me a ton of trouble free riding? He also blew my wife off when she questoned him on a toddler rider seat which really made me mad.

This contradicts everything I have been reading last night and found there is a Specialized dealer not to far from here, I think I am goinf to talk to him. So the real question is how important is the double wall rims and is it worth the extra investment to spend the $$ on them by upgrading to the Hardrok Sport.

There is also another LBS that carries Giant brand like 2 miles from my shop, This is th shop that a frequented as a child purchasing tires, chains, and tubes from and remeber they put up with my crap when I was young. Does Giant make a Clyde ready bike for under $500 like the Rockhopper Sport?

Don't get toddler seats. Get a trailer or a single rider attachment. If you crash with a seat, the toddler will get the worst of it. In a trailer or single rider, the toddler doesn't even notice you've gone down.

Don't get toddler seats. Get a trailer or a single rider attachment. If you crash with a seat, the toddler will get the worst of it. In a trailer or single rider, the toddler doesn't even notice you've gone down.

I agree with this. We stopped selling them for that reason, and I'm gonna make sure my new shop doesn't sell them either.

At 339, good luck finding a suspension fork that won't just compress and then stay that way.

Agree with this completely. You can find manuals for RockShox and Fox suspension products on-line. Give them a read and you'll find their setup recommendations stop at around 200-250lbs, which leads me to believe that that someone heavier than that is going to be out of luck... If you're not planning to do off-road trail riding on a regular basis, you'll probably be better of with a completely rigid bike.

You cannot compare rim/wheel strength by simply looking at whether the rim is single wall or double wall. For a given rim weight a double wall rim is likely to be stronger than a single wall but there are plenty of single wall rims that are very strong, stronger than many double wall, but they tend to be very heavy. Saying a double wall rim is stronger than a single wall is nothing more than a generalization.

You need to look at the spoke count, spoke guage, rim quality, hub and build qualilty to decide how strong a given wheel will be. Most people shopping for bikes would not be able to determine the build quality of a stock wheel so it becomes pretty hit and miss. Suffice it to say, an entry level bike, the Specialized you are considering included, is going to have machine built wheels. That does not translate to weak or badly built but the quality is more variable than a hand built wheel.

In the price range you are considering you will be hard pressed to find a bike with strong enough wheels. Personally I would go to a shop that does their own wheels and find out the cost of having one built from the frame up.

I just bought a Raleigh Mojave 8.0. It has a lockout shock which makes it nice when I ride on the road or rail trail. I haven't gotten to test it out doing any mountain biking yet and I will probably wait till I get under 250 to start that up again. I am 285 up from 230 2 years ago, so I decided to treat myself to a new bicycle to get me back in the groove. My old bike was a 16 year Trek 820 and it started giving me a lot of trouble last year. So I quit riding a lot, now I regret it, should've bought this bike sooner.

. It has a lockout shock which makes it nice when I ride on the road or rail trail. I haven't gotten to test it out doing any mountain biking yet and I will probably wait till I get under 250 to start that up again.

I have the same shock as you and I'm about 230lbs, at that price point/level shocks don't really do much more than smooth out a few small blips. It's suspension but it's not the in same category as suspension that makes a difference on a technical trail.

You cannot compare rim/wheel strength by simply looking at whether the rim is single wall or double wall. For a given rim weight a double wall rim is likely to be stronger than a single wall but there are plenty of single wall rims that are very strong, stronger than many double wall, but they tend to be very heavy. Saying a double wall rim is stronger than a single wall is nothing more than a generalization.

You need to look at the spoke count, spoke guage, rim quality, hub and build qualilty to decide how strong a given wheel will be. Most people shopping for bikes would not be able to determine the build quality of a stock wheel so it becomes pretty hit and miss. Suffice it to say, an entry level bike, the Specialized you are considering included, is going to have machine built wheels. That does not translate to weak or badly built but the quality is more variable than a hand built wheel.

In the price range you are considering you will be hard pressed to find a bike with strong enough wheels. Personally I would go to a shop that does their own wheels and find out the cost of having one built from the frame up.

Thanks for the honesty! I know from all the research that I have done that alot of clydes buy Specialized Hardrock and love them for there quality but are you saying that evry Uber clyde on one of these bikes has a hand built big $$$ wheel? If hand built is the way to go, I shold find a shop and just buy a used frame and piece one together? I have been selling all my old junk and repairing granite left and right on the side for extra cash thats why the budget is up from $300 to $500. I really want a bike that I can ride for a while without breaking the bank.

I am not a heavyweight at 235 so I do not have the wheel issues that many have but I put in a lot of miles and my BMX race bike is hard on wheels so I have had enough problems that I learned to build them myself several years ago. Most stock wheels that I used prior to learning to build them myself had problems within the first 500 miles but some of the cheapest ones actually lasted for ages, it is more about even spoke tension and spokes not being "wound up" than how much you paid for the things.

Now that I know what to do I will loosen off all the spokes on stock wheels and bring them back up to tension myself, a bike shop could do this for you and then your machine built wheel would be like a handbuilt one.

Agree with this completely. You can find manuals for RockShox and Fox suspension products on-line. Give them a read and you'll find their setup recommendations stop at around 200-250lbs, which leads me to believe that that someone heavier than that is going to be out of luck... If you're not planning to do off-road trail riding on a regular basis, you'll probably be better of with a completely rigid bike.

i have to disagree, i ride a hardrock sport with a rst gila plus t7 fork, and i ride off road, and fairly hard... never had any problems with the fork, or anything else on the bike for that matter and i weighed around 265-280 lbs through out the year i've had the bike....

Thanks for the honesty! I know from all the research that I have done that alot of clydes buy Specialized Hardrock and love them for there quality but are you saying that evry Uber clyde on one of these bikes has a hand built big $$$ wheel? If hand built is the way to go, I shold find a shop and just buy a used frame and piece one together? I have been selling all my old junk and repairing granite left and right on the side for extra cash thats why the budget is up from $300 to $500. I really want a bike that I can ride for a while without breaking the bank.

What do you Cldes that have been through this suggest?

There's a poster here, Bdinger, who rides a Hardrock, and rocks it hard, without upgrading the wheels. He weighs more than you do.

There's a poster here, Bdinger, who rides a Hardrock, and rocks it hard, without upgrading the wheels. He weighs more than you do.

Ya just have to "Ride Light". ie: Don't just plop yer arse on the saddle and be a passive passenger on yer bike; be an active participant. "Float" over your saddle on rough stuff. Be observant - SEE the rough stuff before you're riding through it.

Ya just have to "Ride Light". ie: Don't just plop yer arse on the saddle and be a passive passenger on yer bike; be an active participant. "Float" over your saddle on rough stuff. Be observant - SEE the rough stuff before you're riding through it.

If you can do that, you can ride almost any wheel.

Yes, at times our fixation on building super-strong wheels rivals that of the Road Forum's fussing about grams.

In all honesty, at the +/-$500 price point all entry level hardtails are going to be about the same. The differences will be mainly cosmetic, $5 says the frames were all made in the same factory somewhere in Asia. This is not to say that they are inheritently bad, just very similar.

If you are light in the saddle as pointed out above you may very well get several thousand miles out of a stock set of rims. Make sure you take the bike in for its tune up at the 300 mile mark. Specifically ask that they retension your rims when you do. If your not jumping, slamming big ole potholes, or curb hopping a stock single wall rim should be fine.

So, with this in mind go to all three bike shops and buy from the one that gives you the best vibe. In a year or two when you are ready to upgrade you'll have a better idea of exactly what you want and you'll be able to base your decision on that.

Originally Posted by mkadam68 Don't get toddler seats. Get a trailer or a single rider attachment. If you crash with a seat, the toddler will get the worst of it. In a trailer or single rider, the toddler doesn't even notice you've gone down.

Originally Posted by PlatyPius

I agree with this. We stopped selling them for that reason, and I'm gonna make sure my new shop doesn't sell them either.

Sometime I do think Americans do tend to over react a little.... I spent a few weeks in Holland this past summer. You should have seen the number of people with not just kids on the back, but also on the front.

I do have to say that the low step-over hight of the newer European Unisex bikes makes this a much easier proposition. I've used a trailler before, but for one kid I could not believe how much drag it created. I've ridden tons with my daughter on the back. With the large plastic tub surrounding her she would have been reasonably well protected it we ever did go down.

Originally Posted by mkadam68 Don't get toddler seats. Get a trailer or a single rider attachment. If you crash with a seat, the toddler will get the worst of it. In a trailer or single rider, the toddler doesn't even notice you've gone down.

Sometime I do think Americans do tend to over react a little.... I spent a few weeks in Holland this past summer. You should have seen the number of people with not just kids on the back, but also on the front.

I do have to say that the low step-over hight of the newer European Unisex bikes makes this a much easier proposition. I've used a trailler before, but for one kid I could not believe how much drag it created. I've ridden tons with my daughter on the back. With the large plastic tub surrounding her she would have been reasonably well protected it we ever did go down.

Happy riding,
André

It's more a reaction to the general level of stupidity of the average American. How many times have I seen someone leave their kid in the child seat, flip down the kickstand, and walk off? Too many to count. Americans tend to be much more moronic and thoughtless than their European counterparts.

The front-mounted seat, however, I think would be fine.

The rear-mounted ones..... if it's not a step-through frame, I've also seen parents kick their kids in the head when they get off. Again, see my findings that most Americans are idiots.

We were givin a trialor for my daughter and I am going to use it no only to tote her around but to also to haul poles, boxes, camp chairs to the river so me and my son can do some fishing!! When my wife asked about the rear seat for my daughter she asked if it was safe and they LBS salesman told her about the shocks it had. 10 years ago when we got married she would have flipped out!!

I am going to be light in the saddle. I am not the stereo typical fat dude. I install granite kitchens which has me lifting heavy things and climbing in and out of a box truck all day. Also I have almost been arrested for doing stand up wheelies on my friends sport bike last bikeweek but when the cop pulled me over I played the fat card like how could that have been me and got away scott free. I will ride light but I also want to go to Santos and kill it without walking out off the trail. I just don't want to waste what little $$$ I have on a bad purchase and if the Hardrock is a better bike than the 3900 Trek that is all I want to know!

I put 7,500 miles on a stock Trek 7200 over two years with few problems, even at 340#. I'm not sure what the similarities/differences are between the models. It took about 3,000 miles for the first spoke to pop. The aluminum frame is beefy, and the front shocks held up surprisingly well (albeit on roads only). Trek makes a fine bike in that price range ($500-600)